Corn, Corn, Everywhere Corn!

Here’s a sneak peek from the second lesson in my Real Food Nutrition & Health E-Course. The second lesson is on Healthy Fats & Oils, and I took the opportunity to introduce the ever ubiquitous presence of corn in the industrial food chain. There are a host of lessons that single topic could fit into, but I figured it should be introduced early on. So, I bring it up when discussing how out of balance the Standard American Diet is in Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids (at a ratio of 20:1) when compared to traditional people groups (a ratio at or near 1:1). This, of course, is due in no small part to feeding farm animals large quantities of corn.

Anyhow, I thought you’d appreciate another Sneak Peek Video. Enjoy!

As with last week’s Sneak Peek, it’s just a small excerpt from a much more in-depth lesson, but it’s kinda fun!

What you’ll see:

A Food Scientist bragging about how we “engineer” foods today in laboratories!

The shocking level of corn in today’s supermarket (it’s hiding where you least expect it!)

The link between corn and unnaturally high Omega 6 fatty acids in our diet

I think you all will really enjoy the course. I know I’m having (too much?) fun pulling together the different resources and thinking up creative assignments. Nutrition is a naturally fascinating topic. After all, not many things hit closer to home than what we eat!

About the Author

Kristen Michaelis is a passionate advocate for REAL FOOD -- food that's sustainable, organic, local, and traditionally-prepared according to the wisdom of our ancestors. While she adores hats & happy skirts, nothing inspires her quite like geeking out over nutrition & sustainable agriculture. Nutrition educator & author of the go-to book on nutrition for fertility, she's also a rebel with a cause who enjoys playing in the rain, a good bottle of Caol Isla scotch, curling up with a page-turning book, sunbathing on her hammock, and parenting her three children as they grow into young adults.

Comments

I occassionally use corn syrup in a dessert to achieve a certain effect, so I am not entirely against using corn products. But I hate that HFCS is in everything. I banned it from my house several years ago. I stopped buying some of my favorite foods that had at some point switched from sugar to HFCS. The thing that makes me the maddest is when it is in “healthy” food like yogurt.
.-= Alea´s last blog post …Roasted Root Vegetables =-.

I’m not against all corn products either. We eat the occasional tortilla, for example, assuming that the corn is non-GMO and has been nixtimalized in lime. But we really try to avoid eating processed foods, as well as animal products from animals fed a steady diet of corn.

My daughter is allergic to corn. Once we figured that out and really started reading labels we realized that corn is in everything and not just in the form of HFCS. We like to look on the bright side that she has an allergy because it sent us down the road to real food and we all feel so much better now.
.-= Megan´s last blog post …Down on the Farm Homeschooling-Unschooling =-.

As an interesting sidenote, commodity corn is NOT as lovely as the banner picture you have on this post. Where I live is engulfed in corn and soybeans (the midwest), so I’ve seen plenty. And I am so please to report that it is BUTT UGLY. Not beautiful, like this buttery-looking ear.

Hee! I’ll get my jabs where I can, even when I’m singing with the choir.

I know it’s a little OT for this post, but when is the Real Food book for younger kids going to come out? I really want to buy a copy to use to substitute the nutrition info in my older son’s health book (which unfortunately follows the USDA food pyramid).

No, I don’t think this will ever be on DVD. Too much of the material is copyrighted (the movie clips, the music, some of the images) for me to sell it as my own work. In order for me to sell anything, I’d have to re-produce it with original content that I own or have licensed. Since these things are being used for educational purposes and not in their entirety, it’s considered “fair use” for me to share them with my students — much the same way any teacher shows a movie clip in class or passes out copies from a few pages of a supplemental reading text.

I do highly recommend buying any of the source material if you’re enjoying it. Just check the video credits!

Hi Kristen
I had no idea that corn was in everything altho I have heard bits a pieces of that over the years. I will have to start to pay attention to labeling. Your e-course also looks very interesting.

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